Beaumont-bound ship picks up 4 out of food on disabled rowboat

Dan Wallac, Beaumont Enterprise

By Dan Wallach

Published 9:57 am, Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Elizabeth Beauchamp, right, and Jane McIntosh are two of a four-member British rowboat team who were stranded in the Atlantic Ocean after their rudder snapped mid-race. The team was rescued a day later by crew members of the Hedvig Bulker, above, 1200 miles east of Puerto Rico and brought to the Port of Beaumont Monday night. The team raced for 51 days and stranded for one, before being rescued.
Photo taken Monday, February 03, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Elizabeth Beauchamp, right, and Jane McIntosh are two of a...

Crew members of the Hedvig Bulker watch as their rescuees disembark the at the Port of Beaumont Monday night. The crew rescued four British rowboat racers in the Atlantic Ocean on January 24 about 1200 miles east of Puerto Rico.
Photo taken Monday, February 03, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Crew members of the Hedvig Bulker watch as their rescuees disembark...

Elizabeth Beauchamp, left, and Jane McIntosh are two of a four-member British rowboat team who were stranded in the Atlantic Ocean after their rudder snapped mid-race. The team was rescued a day later by crew members of the Hedvig Bulker, above, 1200 miles east of Puerto Rico and brought to the Port of Beaumont Monday night. The team raced for 51 days and was stranded for one, before being rescued.
Photo taken Monday, February 03, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Elizabeth Beauchamp, left, and Jane McIntosh are two of a...

Elizabeth Beauchamp, left, and Jane McIntosh are two of a four-member British rowboat team who were stranded in the Atlantic Ocean after their rudder snapped mid-race. The team was rescued a day later by crew members of the Hedvig Bulker, above, 1200 miles east of Puerto Rico and brought to the Port of Beaumont Monday night. The team raced for 51 days and stranded for one, before being rescued.
Photo taken Monday, February 03, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Electricity failed. The steering failed. High seas and high wind battered the boat. Food and water ran low and ran out. Then the worst happened. The rudder snapped,

That was 51 days into the voyage, on Jan. 23.

A distress call went out, picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard in Puerto Rico, about 1,500 miles distant. The rowboat crew was halfway through its race, but almost all done. Almost all out of luck.

The vessel, Hedvig Bulker, heading to the Port of Beaumont to load grain, heard their distress call about 70 miles from their position.

The Bulker's captain moved his ship in to pick them up, but it took five hours of maneuvering in and out of the swells and nine tries to grab the quartet of air officers from the sea. They were close to their end, but they managed to clamber aboard using a cargo net because there was no way the Bulker's rescue boat could launch in the rolling ocean.

On Monday, tied up to a Port of Beaumont dock, the four British rowers disembarked to applause from their rescuers and climbed into a vehicle to go to Houston to board a flight for home.